Felix Frankfurter Quotes

1882-1965, Austrian-born American Law Teacher, Judge
quotes
8
topics
8
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“To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.”
Facts
“There can be no security where there is fear.”
Security
“Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.”
Character
“Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep.”
VerifiedSpeech accepting an award from the National Institute for Immigrant Welfare, Biltmore Hotel, New York (May 11, 1933). · evidenceGratitude
“Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”
VerifiedDissenting, Henslee v. Union Planters National Bank & Trust Co., 335 U.S. 600 (1949). · evidenceWisdom
“We forget that the most successful statesmen have been professionals. Lincoln was a professional politician.”
Professions and Professionals
“Judicial judgment must take deep account of the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today.”
Precedents
“The words of the Constitution are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.”
VerifiedThe Supreme Court, vol. 3, no. 1, Parliamentary Affairs (London, Winter 1949). · evidenceConstitutions